October 22, 2024 • 40 mins
Daniel sits down with scare attraction expert Chris Stafford, who has spent the better part of his career building the largest Halloween live event company in the world.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If I was in a hunted house and all of
a sudden, like I go into one around a corner
and I'm walking in like three inches of muddy water.
Yea infuriate me.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I don't like some haunted houses incorporate water effects. I'm
not a big fan of those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I don't want to get wet. Yeah, I don't want
to feel moisture in a dark room.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Pasha Tosh shot, Hello and welcome to Tosh Show.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm your host, Dan Tosh.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Wh Eddie.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
How's it going, Tosh Man?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Man, it's long and plump and ready to pump.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Okay, yeah, huh did you.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Ever say that one? Back in high school?
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Never said that. That one must have slipped through the
vernacular in my school.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I used to say that. I used to say it
every day. My teacher, Big, how you doing. I'm long
and plump and ready to pump? And she was like,
that's my.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Boy to adults.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Oh man, good times at Astronaut High School. I mean
a good mood because I've almost fulfilled all the horrible
parent obligations for Halloween.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Just one more.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I just have one more to do, and that is
trick or treating, which I always thought was the only
thing we had to do.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Then I had a family, and my wife say, you know,
we got to go to Underwood Farms.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh, what is that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's a place about an hour away, pumpkin patch. They
got some rides. If you call them rides a slide.
You feed a couple of animals, you give them way
too much money for gords. You sweat the temperature of
my house. Nice seventy degrees get there ninety two lovely.
Speaking of that, we were up in Tahoe the week
(01:51):
before and my wife was like, Oh, let's go on
over to this place called Apple Hill. They've got tons
of fall festival things going on. You get apple pies,
there's an orchard you walk around. First of all, I go, okay,
how far away is it?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Two hours and ten minutes what basically went to Sacramento.
Speaker 6 (02:13):
Fucking horrible.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
You don't live in Tahoe and vacation in Sacramento. That's absurd.
But we did it. We drove there and sure enough
it was boiling ninety eight degrees out. Oh, this is
this is superfall. I bought a turnover, had a turnover
into apple cinnamon donuts. That was all right, and then
(02:37):
we just like hopped around from bad Orchard to bad orchard.
There's a bunch of old obese No. I mean, I
shouldn't care about the size, but they there was just
a lot of old obese people. Then me and my
young family just is, yeah, we're here too, made no sense. Bees,
(02:57):
yellow jackets everywhere.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm like, this is awful. Oh, let's get back in the.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Car that two hour drive back to the beautiful place
we live. So you're four and a half hours in
the car that day, so go get a turnover.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I don't get it. What's the next thing I did?
Nights of the jack that's up in Calabasas. Yeah, that
I don't mind. It's at night, and you get a
there's a bunch of food trucks, and then you walk
a mile and a half loop in this park and
they've set up all kinds of Halloween lights. Kids seem
to enjoy it. I don't mind it because I get
(03:37):
to eat. As long as i'm eating, I'm happy.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That's the key.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You You like Halloween, don't you, Hattie.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I do like Halloween.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, because you sold your sould of the devil.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I sold my soul of the devil.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Do you dress up?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I don't dress up. I do like a you know,
decorate the house.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You decorate the house.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
But you hand candy out, hand out candy?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Are you proud of the candy you give? Or do
you not care?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No?
Speaker 5 (03:59):
I do five nice bags at Costco, good sized candy bars.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
We have a ton of people come through.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
My manager, Christy Smith, just loves to brag that I
give out whole bars. Last year I gave out three
hundred and seventy four. Who cares. I turned the lights
off at our house and we go to another neighborhood
where it's more congested, and you knock it out. You
do one street, you hit three hundred homes. I've never
(04:27):
once been home to hand out candy.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
You don't understand this side of this lightop.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I don't get it. No, I don't get it, and
I don't care anyway. My son's good for about forty
five minutes, maybe an hour of actual trick or treating.
And we started at five o'clock and by six we're done.
Now he likes to be scared, but you know, five
year old scared Where I hide in the house and
(04:58):
he comes on around a corner scream and he almost
falls over. I don't think he's ready for like a
severed head to be thrown at him.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Like today's guest.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
This guy, This guy is cashed in on America's love
affair of being terrified.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Enjoy catcha.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
My guest today has made his living lurking in the shadows,
speaking in whispers, and blurring the line between nightmares and
reality with several insanely successful haunted houses nationwide. May God
have mercy on his soul, please welcome the architect of fear, Chris. Chris,
thank you for being here.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Yeah, thanks for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Where are you from?
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Originally originally from upstate New York? Rochester?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Rochester?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
You know Rochester gets a bad rap sometimes.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
I think it does. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You give me a choice of where to live, Rochester
or Buffalo. I'm taking Rochester every time.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
I agree, hands down.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think lately it's gotten some press for great places
to live or something like that.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It's nice to hear. Yeah, I just want the people
of Buffalo to know that their place is horrible.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
All right.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So now you live you live in Denver.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
I live in Denver.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, my wife thinks I live here a part time,
but I live in Denver.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You do a lot of work in laws.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Yeah, we have four events here in La now, so
I'm out here a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Talk to me about Sean Payton. Were you happy with
that decision?
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Yes? I was happy with that, and then you knew.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
That the writing was on the wall for Old Russ.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
It sure looked like that right away.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Do you blame John Elway?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
I think John Elway just came out and blamed himself.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Actually, John Elway, maybe he's just trying to cement his
own legacy by never letting someone better than him become
a quarterback in Denver.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
That would be a conspiracy, but I could get behind him.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Does he still have all those dealerships everywhere he does?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah? Yep, so there's still one down in South Bay.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Eddy, I think I bought a Toyota from a while back.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You bought a Toyota from John Elwack.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Good on you.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
How many haunted houses are we looking at now?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (06:57):
We have eighteen and twelve different markets.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Are you the biggest company that does this? As far
as I'm aware, we are the largest Halloween live event
company in the world.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you had a hunted house called thirteenth floor. Yeah,
it started in Denver. Originally what floor was it on?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
On ground level? But so the backstory is the thirteenth
floor is hidden underground so that they can they can
hide it because it's absence in so many buildings.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Did you ever hear Mitch Hedberg's joke about the thirteenth floor?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
No, huh, he had a joke.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
But if you if you kill yourself on the fourteenth floor,
you're going to die sooner.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
You're losing me on this one.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Because they don't they don't have that. It's actually the
third The fourteenth floor is always the thing, gotcha? Yeah,
you know what, I probably didn't do the joke.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Did I do the joke? Right?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I gotta look it up.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
It said something like it doesn't matter who cares. Now,
I'll be honest with you, my favorite holiday is Christmas
and my second favorite holiday is Christmas Eve. To me,
the best thing about Halloween is getting ready for Christmas.
Now it's acceptable to start selling.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Well, now it's it's Christmas is in the stories before
Halloween even kicks off.
Speaker 6 (07:59):
It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Are you one of these people that Halloween was always
your favorite holiday or.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
No, probably, Yeah, I mean Christmas is pretty close, but
Halloween I think was you know, it was it was
fun being involved in haunted houses. It's a very unique
way to celebrate the season. And you know, I like
the Fall a lot, so it just kind of tied together.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
I do like the fall. You say fall over autumn?
Speaker 6 (08:18):
Yeah I do.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I do too.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Now is it just October or your year round?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Now it's year round.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
We're already working on next season right now when this
season just just kicked off?
Speaker 6 (08:28):
Really?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So favorite a horror movie? Do you have any that
you liked?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know, I grew up with the classic Slashers. I
grew up in the eighties, so you know, Freddie, Jason Michael,
those are kind of my go tos.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, Nightmare on Elmstred As a kid, that scared me?
Speaker 6 (08:42):
Yeah I did.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Really, you play to the one thing that that's the
worst for a kid, like you can't fall asleep. If
you fall asleep, you're gonna die. Did you like to
be scared as a child?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Not really actually, And wasn't really a big horror fan.
But when I was a teenager, I was fifteen years
old and a friend of mine called me up and said, hey,
do you want to go scare some people tonight? And
I said, well, are we going to get in trouble
or arrested or what's Just like? His family owned a
local haunted house and that's where I got started. Went
out there, started scaring people, got bit by the haunted
house bug, and have been involved in one way or
another for my entire life. We started our first professional
(09:15):
haunted house in two thousand and two. Okay, but from
ninety eight until two thousand and ten, I had a
career in banking.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And how how did your wife handle you saying listen,
I really want to knock it off with the banking
and just go full time haunted here.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I went to her in two thousand and six and
I said, hey, I think I can scale this haunted
house business.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
She said, let me get this straight.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You have a great job, you have an awesome work
life balance, they pay you well, you like what you do.
She's like, I'm not saying no, but I think you
should really think about this. But then in two thousand
and eight, when the financial crisis hit, yep, my job
became super on fun overnight. We were doing land development
and construction lending. Which overnight was kind of a mess.
So she said, hey, it's time for you to go
(09:58):
do what you want to do and some fun.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, they say happy husband, and they don't say
anything because they don't care if the husbands are happy.
There's no saying for happy husband. Just go to work.
Were you terrified going into this like diving in.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
A little bit, you know? And it's funny.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I hadn't thought about that in a while, but in
two thousand and eight, I remember when I was like,
all right, this is this is what we're going to do.
And I was like, man, I hope this works out.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Is it more passion or or is it profit? At
this point, like you know, cash cow.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It's equal.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I know that sounds like a PC response, but like
you got to have both sides of it. You got
to have passion for the product, but you also have
to have, you know, a business acumen. You got to
market it, you got to finance it, you got to
you know, do all those other things. And I think
the successful attractions blend both of those together.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They say fear is an aphrodisiac. Is this whole enterprise
rooted around kink? No? No, not at all. What's the
best state for enthusiasm for the all the Hunted House.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Honestly, uh, California.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
LA has an incredible fandom over haunted events like nothing
I receive in any other market because they're godless.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
I don't know, I think.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
No, I mean, that's that's impressive. I mean, I mean
there's a sheer numbers thing though there is, Yeah, there's that,
but but I think it's it's it's a little more
than that out here.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I think maybe, you know, having the theme parks out
here kind of facilitated that, and now I think they're
seeking out alternative events to the theme parks as well.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
And how's that hay ride doing. Hay Ride's awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Hay Ride's like great to be in LA, but get
transported to like you know, it feels like the East
Coast vibe or a Midwest vibe during Halloween.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Can you rent out your own hay ride a private ride?
Speaker 6 (11:43):
You can rent a private hay ride trailer.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Uh huh yep, and just go solo.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
You can go solo if you want. Most most people.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sit there where about you.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know, I think you'd trip out the actors if
you did that. It was just you by yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Can you eat while you're on the hay ride?
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Not on the hay ride?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It's a shame.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Yeah, I like that, a burger on the hay right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Well, I mean I don't know. I just I always
like to be eating. Now, what's pulling these hay rides?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Tractors? Like actual farm tractors?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Do you own them?
Speaker 6 (12:14):
We do?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah? How many do you owt We own eleven of them?
I believe what brand are we looking at?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Are they Deer? Are they John Deeers?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
They're not, They're red, They're okay, I don't know what
the brand.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I'm in the market for one that doesn't run anymore.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
What are you gonna do with it?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
What in my yard?
Speaker 6 (12:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Like as a pretty Yeah, your neighbors love it. What
do I care about that? I just want to I
just want an old tractor.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
But I think old John Deer's are pretty pretty bad ass.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
The problem is they don't they don't bring people. They
keep restoring them. They're like nineteen forties and they're still running.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
There's a lot of people that collect them.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Now, Yeah, I don't want to spend a lot. I
just want an old junkie tractor to put in the yard.
Seems like something fun to climb on and get, you know,
get a big old rust cut. What about the boat?
What's the ship thing?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Dark harbor? Yeah, yeah, I mean amazing old haunted ship.
We do Haunted maze is on the ship. There's three
on the ship and then there's two in the harbor
that are adjacent. What's the ship do the rest of
the year.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
It's a hotel. They also have restaurants.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, you've been on that ship, Eddie, I have
been on it.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
You have, Yeah, I've been at this event.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Of course you have.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Oh man, what's the scariest thing?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You know?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Every year? Are new things being invented? Or is it
still just like jump out and startle people.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
When people say they're getting scared in a haunted house,
it's usually they're being startled, so a loud noise allowed,
ef fact, you know, something like that.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Lighting changes.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's really hard to scare people, you know, on the
emotional aspect of scaring people, But it's easy to startle people,
and that's mostly what people are looking for.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
I think when they go to haunted house, why do
you think people like being scared?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I think when people are scared, it's the same type
of chemical release in your body, like when you're happier,
you're excited. I think they go to see their friends
be scared. I think they go in a group of
people with someone they know is going to be scared
so that they can watch and see what that person's
reaction is. Yeah, are you into the gore and those
type of stuff or not so much?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Really?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, I like the psychological stuff better. I think it's
a little scarier as far as films go.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Okay, forget films, but I mean, are your guys like
walking on severed arms and all that stuff? And yeah,
what about torturing each other? Are they doing that stuff?
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Yeah, not torturing each other.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But you know, everybody likes something different in a haunted house,
and there's certain fans that they want to see the gore.
They want to see things that you know, look real,
that aren't real. So yeah, we have a lot of
that in the haunted houses.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
What it's the protocol. Somebody gets too scared.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Usually the actors or sometimes we have event staff in
the attractions, and they can identify that and ask them
if they're okay and escort them out through an emergency.
I don't want to be they scored it out by
like some monsters. Well, and that's why that's why we
have to have event staff there as well, because the
last thing you want to do when you're terrified is
have a monster come up to find out if you're.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Okay you or have someone have a hard attack and
just die.
Speaker 6 (14:57):
No, nobody died.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Nobody's stroked out out in the middle of one of
these things.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
We have had people pass out and have it be
a little too much for them.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Sure, I've had that at a show before. I thought
my jokes were just doing real well, then turned out
it was really bad. You ever get scared walking through
your own haunted houses?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I don't get scared in haunted houses. For me, it's
the dark, right, It's like the fear of the unknown
to me is way scarier than what you might see
in hanted house. You're saying in the just general and darkness,
you don't like it. Yeah, I don't like darkness. Not
a big fan. Scared of the dark. I guess, do
you like honored houses? Do you go? No? No?
Speaker 6 (15:32):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
The thing is, if I went, I would love it. Yeah,
but I'm also okay with Well I didn't go, and
that was really lovely not going out. Yeah, all right,
That's where I'm at on most things. Yeah, you really
have to persuade. I mean, my whole day gets ruined
when I find out my wife has set up an activity.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I'm like, oh no.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Honestly, the real nightmare of all these places is the parking.
True or false?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Uh, pretty true on the venue, but definitely pretty true
because you know, everybody wants to go on the weekend.
It's the only time that all their friends are available.
So you know, it's not not nasty to park if
you come on a Thursday or a Sunday, but if
you're going to go on a Friday and Saturday, it's
at a premium for you. Always have to do it
at night too. That's a problem for me with the
Halloween stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, I'm not ah, I wish we could do there
was like a matinee showing, just not as scary though.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
That's the problem now. It takes the sun going down
for people to get a little in the in the
spooky mood.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I guess the bathroom situation that's the nightmare at all
these places.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, it's a lot of work to keep those clean
and ready for use.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh, because you have to deal with the worst group
of people on the planet. Has to be like twelve
to sixteen year old just dealing with them constantly. Yeah,
they're just monsters.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Yeah, I'm not sure I should comment on that.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
No, you can't, but I mean I see it. I
go to a local fair every now and then I'm
just like, look at and then they dress like whores.
You're just like this, this is awful. How does a
fire marshall feel about adding tons of walls and trip
hazards to a dark room?
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Yeah, I mean they're they feel great about it. It's
it's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
No, do they actually like, go, guys, you can't do this.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Most of our fire marshals we have a great relationship with.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We haven't really ran into anybody that is you know,
anti haunted house or Halloween. They just want to make
sure it's safe, and you know, we want to make
sure the same thing. So you know, having an open
dialogue with them is always really helpful as well.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
Can't you do.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I'm just trying to think of things that I would
hate if I was in a haunted house and all
of a sudden, like I go into one around a corner,
and I'm walking in like three inches of muddy water.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, I would infuriate me. Yeah, I don't think i'd
want to do that either.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Are you allowed to do that?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Though?
Speaker 6 (17:46):
I think we would be allowed to do muddy water,
But I don't. I don't think that you.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Want to really upset people. Yeah, they go out and
their sneakers.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I don't like some haunted houses incorporate water effects. I'm
not a big fan of those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I don't want to get wet. Yeah, I don't want feel
moisture in a dark room. What about smell? You mess
with smells? We do mess with smells. Oh yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And there's there's a company out there that sells disgusting
smelling sense you can put in the Honted house. The
problem with those is, as much as you might want
to use them for the guests coming through so they
catch a quick smell of that, I just feel terrible
for the actors that are stuck in there with that
smell the whole night.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I mean, there has to be a pecking order with
your actors, and I feel like, you know what, you
you mess up a couple of times you're on the
stink gun.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
Or you get to graduate from smell to non smell.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Maybe that's what you could do.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
You could have like like some weird dead woman with
a bottle of perfume, Like she's at like a Macy's
at the holidays, spraying people and she just comes up
to you and sprays you, and then you're just covered
in stink.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Yeah, and that that stuff does not go away, So.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
That's not good. What's the age range? What's the lowest
age that can not you know, it's it's determinant on
the kid. I've seen kids as young as five and
have a great time.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
There's no rule. There's no rule.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
We tell them when they show up that we don't
recommend it for kids under twelve, and we tell them
that it's the ticket booth. Well okay, but.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
You know it's it's kind of parents discretion.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I think some of them make good choices because they
know the kids, and some of them make bad choices
because their kids shouldn't be there.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But they are responsible drug dealer.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I think that the core age though, is you're pre
teen to twenty something, but that's starting to skew older.
I think haunted houses the production value has gotten a
lot higher and now it's more about a whole night
of entertainment. So older people are starting to stick with
haunted houses a lot longer than I think they used to.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
What a ticket range is prices range for.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
You know, on average, right now, they're about you know,
thirty five dollars for kind of your base ticket to
get you in the door. And that really hasn't changed
drastically when you look at inflation over the years over
leave in the last ten years, haunted houses are still
pretty pretty good value as it comes to live entertainment.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And you handled COVID without any major.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
COVID was rough.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
But the nature of what we do in haunted entertainment
is we social distance by nature, like you don't want
to be more than six feet from the group in
front of you. So there was a lot of educating
to the people in charge to say, hey, we can
open this safely and we can keep people apart from
each other and keep them in their family groups. Chi
ching is what I heard.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Yeah, or or just trying to lose less money that year.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I mean, yeah, but at least you weren't in the
concert business. Yeah, exactly. Do you guys have a thing
where you're like at a big scare moment that there's
a photo taken of them that they can buy later.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So we don't have a photo moment, but we are
currently experience experimenting with a video moment.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
So we have an RFID tag.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
They go through the haunted house and there's five different
scare points, and it records like a couple seconds before
they go into the room until a couple seconds after.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I don't want you to leaving money on the table.
Speaker 6 (20:53):
Yeah, I try not to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got a gift shop there too.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We have big gift shops now. Yeah, people love buying
spooky things for Halloween.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
You sell a faulty pregnancy test in your gift shop, Oh.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
No, that might be a big seller, though it's a
good gag.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Put those in there really scare some people. What does
it cost to run one of your attractions?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
You know, it depends on the venue. On the low end,
multiple of hundreds of thousand dollars. On the larger end,
in the millions of dollars to run the different events.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
You look at your dailies, go, oh man, this is
what we're spending so much money on every year.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Payroll yeah, actors staff. I mean that's the number one expense,
hands down, and the amount of actors that you have
once you audition these idiots. I don't know. I don't
personally audition anybody anymore, but we do have auditions, and
usually for the more specialized roles, more acting intensive roles.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Well, people are just screaming and running up to me.
Allowed to touch you?
Speaker 6 (21:53):
No, we don't touch No. It's it's kind of an
unspoken rule.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
A lot of people say, oh, I was touched in
on how it's usually you know, the actor, they're in
a dark space, they'll bump into you and you know,
un touched in the house too.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
But you know that's for my therapist to figure out
what's the oldest, uh person that you guys hire.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I don't know officially the oldest, but all of our attractions,
I always see an old actor.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
That makes you question.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
It's it's amazing how many different people from different professions
just want to do it for fun.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You use children actors, ever, we do not not allowed to.
We just find kids just terrifying, so we put it
you put a kid in there.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
We actually have some actors that are child sized. Uh huh.
I like what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Yeah, and when they're.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Made up, you you would swear they're a kid, but
they're you know, legal adults. Uh huh, all right, loopholes.
I love it. What kind of background checks are you
doing on all these everyone? Everyone gets a background check
before they become an employee everyone.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I mean, I don't I don't want to talk about
worst case scenarios, but are you guys prepared for all
that stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah? No, we we stay very diligent, well real crazy,
They very diligent in keeping the actual crazies out of
the Haunted House.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Those makeup artists. The amount of time it takes. Is
there a sped up version that you guys are doing
with all these actors.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah. A lot of the makeup artists use in an
airbrush makeup so they can they can move really fast,
so they can draw in different details.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
But they're putting like gels and flesh.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Not everyone, you know, So different levels of actor depending
upon how visible they're going to be in the Haunted House.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
So the ones that are going.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
To be more visible might have like a prosthetic treatment
like you're talking about, but a lot of them are
airbrush and with shadows.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
And things. They can do some really cool makeups with airbrush.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You ever put a mask on and scare people? I did.
I mean that's how I started, But I mean now
now it's undercover boss style. It's been about eight years
and I think the last time I did it, I
was absolutely exhausted after about twenty minutes.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
So I gave that up.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Hung up the mask. That's a misconception with people. They
all think they want to work in a haunted house.
But it's hard work. You know, you're in a mask
or hot costume, You're in a dark, cramped space, and
it's hard jumping out doing the same thing repetitively, you know,
for over like a five hour night.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
What do you think about these gen zs? How's their
work ethic?
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Different? Questionable? Maybe I'm trying to trying to stay correct here.
I got a lot of gen Z actors. Look you
know the I mean you're really in it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, you really can see every generation go oh this
is awful.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah. I think the one upcoming is is pretty good.
I think the next one up is going to be good.
I can't get my kid to do anything.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
There's good luck with a boss telling them to do
something I loved working.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
As a kid. Yeah, oh yeah, just.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Because that was the only way I was ever going
to get money or get to do anything.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, Like my parents just didn't care. Yeah, we're not
giving you anything. Yeah, No, that's changed a lot. I
have two kids at home that I'm like wondering when
they're gonna get kicked out of the nest.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Or would you kick him out? Would your wife let
you kick him out? Probably not? Yeah, that's all right.
There's worse things to have in your house.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Your kids are what my kids are, eighteen and twenty.
My son actually turns twenty one on Thursday this week.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
You're kind of an empty nester. Is that even a
thing anymore? Because it seems like kids just stay with
us forever.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, they have not left the nest. Ye failure to
launch for sure?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Did your kids Did they like Halloween as a kid?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
They did not like it as young kids up until
the time they were about twelve. In fact, when my
son was really young, he used to be excited about
the different catalogs and things that would come in the mail.
He'd say, I want to look at the spooky stuff.
But when he was five, my stepfather decided to scare
him when he was over at his house, and from
the time he was five until he was about twelve,
he wanted nothing to do with it. He starred him.
(25:44):
I think he just figured out what fear was. Now,
he figured out. He wasn't jazzed about that, but a
smart kid.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, what do you do personally at your own home
on Halloween?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
When my kids were young, my wife would get crap
from the neighbors because she said, you're they're like your husband,
mister Halloween, and your house is the most boring house
on the block.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
You tell your neighbors if they shell out fifty bucks,
you'll up the game.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Because I was working, you know, I was out, you know,
and the kids weren't old enough to be celebrating. But
once my kids were old enough, I did start decorating
the yard and I would take things from the haunted house,
fog machines, speakers, I did projections in our windows, different props,
and you would think I created the most incredible haunted house.
At all time, my neighbors are out there with their
phones out, and I want to say to them, I'm like,
(26:29):
right down the street, there's a place. We invested millions
of dollars in that people are still going through and
coming out the other side going it was, okay.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Are your kids going to take over your empire?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
You know, I did not push either one of them
to get involved in any way, but they both are
involved now. They both work at our location in Denver.
My daughter's an actress and she also does some makeup there,
and then my son is more on the tech side,
so kind of the behind the scenes. But I felt
like I didn't want to push them to be involved.
I wanted it to be their own choice to be involved.
But yeah, they're both involved in I see them growing
(26:59):
with the company and probably taking on more responsibility.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
How do I forget this first question? Do you believe
in ghosts?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You know, I want to believe in ghosts, and I
feel like I should believe in ghosts, But no, I
don't believe in.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Ghosts because you've seen behind the curtain too much exactly. Ah,
that's a shame. I really wanted you to believe in ghosts.
The people that care about Halloween too much, do they
freak out a little bit?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
I think anybody that cares about anything too much is
a little scary.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
But you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
It's like those Disney adults. You have to go to
Disney constantly. What about international? Have you put one overseas yet?
We're not open overseas yet. I bet you could do
some weird stuff in some of these Asian countries. Oh man,
they're probably into some freaky scary stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:44):
I might not be tuned into the Asian horror scene
quite yet.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Oh, but I bet I'm talking about money on the table.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
I mean, Halloween is growing fast in other parts of
the world.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You know, it was always traditionally more of an American thing,
but now.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I don't even know that. I don't even know that
that's true. It was just it's basically an American holiday.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And now it's grown fast in Europe, Asia, the Middle East.
People used to ask me, where are you going to
expand to? I said, take Denver, draw out a two
and a half hour flight radius.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
It's a pretty safe bet.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
You got one and asspen yet No, no, I don't
think you'd work out up there.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
What other cities, Well, you got Colorado Springs. M those
people are talk about scary. The people in Colorado Springs.
There's a bunch of there's a bunch of loonies over there.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Aren't there great people in Colorado Springs? They love driving
to Denver for the haunted house? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
What about those the things where I hear of people
being completely actually paid to be tortured. Basically, I don't
know exactly what I'm talking about, but.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Not haunted houses is my big statement on those, right.
It's like, you know, to your point, it's like a
simulated abduction or a simulated torture.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Not what we do.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And I and you know, it gets a lot of
press around Halloween, but I don't think anybody that really
just wants to celebrate Halloween is into that stuff, you know.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
I think that's more of a unique person a fun
date night.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Come on, honey, if we can make it till sun up,
we get one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Everybody's on my show gets a gift, and it's just
stuff that I have around my house. So I was like, oh,
I don't know what to give you, But then I
thought of something.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I've never used it one time in my life. Got
you my chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Oh my god, this is awesome. I don't think I've
ever had my own chainsaw. Yeah, I figured. I was like, well,
I don't need this. Look, I even I even.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Have all this stuff because I'm like, they're like, oh,
you're gonna need barn oil cleaner and you're gonna need
all whatever.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
This is, Oh smoke.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
What was the plan for it when you got it?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I'm like, because I was a man, like I have
a house.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, And they're like, well you need a chain saw.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Well this is this is part of the man card.
Now I have one. I haven't had one before, so
this is good.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And then you're supposed to sharpen a shape.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
All of it just says like, sharpen this thing.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
You're you don't think like I have a file that
goes in betwe a single?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No, I listen.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
It's never been used as a sixteen inch chains as
a craftsman.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
That two year warrant. He's gotta be void. Yeah, that
thing has been sitting in my garage.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
The box is discolored on the top. Yeah, it's been here.
It's been here a while.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
It's been there many many years. Never never thought to
use it.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
All right, get that off my des please.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
This is my mask that I've done a bit on
my old I had an old TV show and I
did a bit and it was, oh, yeah, I love
this baby.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I know the artist that made that you do big
ass baby. Yeah, his name's Landing. Yeah, land Landed did
good work. Because this is creepy as hell. I know.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, it's the right it's the right amount of cree.
I'm not giving it to you, but I just I
wanted to bring it. This is the worst thing in
the world.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
That is the worst thing in the world.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
My wife bought that and goes, oh, I go, what
are you talking about? That is pure shit.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
You cannot carve a pump pumpkin with this.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Do you carve pum pumpkins?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
I do. I finally didn't get that off. I finally
stopped carving real pumpkins. And now we have these forever pumpkins.
So if you carve your design into at least she
can keep it year after year. Now that the kids
are oh, you don't do my mind. Forever pumpkin. It's
it's a foam pumpkin and you cut it. Yeah, and
you can cut a design into it just like a regular.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Pumpkins, like hard to cut, like a real pumpkins, where
you will slice yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I like y.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
It is the nice thing about it is once they're carved,
you can keep them every year and just kind of
keep adding. You don't have to run out and get
a live pumpkin.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Every year.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
We get pumpkins, lots of them. I never knew that.
I always thought you bought one pumpkin. My wife we
go to a pumpkin pet and she's getting gords and
pumpkins and she gets like ten to put next to
each other, by.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
The different colors, all the different.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
And then we don't carve a single one.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
No, no, how come?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I don't have the answer to that.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
It's just like they just look nicer.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
Maybe when your kids are a little older, they're gonna
want maybe.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
They'll want to carve one. I don't, I hope, because
I don't want to do it. No, you guys decorate
your house for Halloween?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah you do? Yep?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
What do you put up?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Eddie?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
I do that? You know the glass garage?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Do? I do?
Speaker 5 (32:09):
Projection from the inside nice, so like it's a like
a skeleton dances around.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Can you could you just play something?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah? You could just play a movie.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, why don't you put Why don't you just put
like this the Saw anthology.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Uh, you know a.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Lot that you can't play play those type of movies, right,
thanks the neighborhood to shut that down.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
I think the neighborhood be upset about that one.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
My neighborhood, they used to just do one section of
the street and people would go crazy and do all
kinds of things. And then just you know, recently a
few neighbors have moved and they dropped the ball. It's
no longer exciting.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Yeah. I remember when I was a kid, it was
like Halloween and trick or treating was huge, especially back East.
People would stop by your house and you'd welcome them in.
But now it's like people come and ring your doorbell.
You don't want anything to do with them. So I
never went into a house though that you went into
house as a kid, that's dand no, no, just just just
ringing the doorbell, okay, all right. Anybody says come on in,
it's like, ah, don't go to that house.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
What's your favorite candy given out of the Halloween Reese's
peanut butter cups.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Butter cups, not Reese's pieces, those are good, but peanut
butter cups.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, peanut butter cup.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I'm not liking that they've tried to diversify so much,
Like this one has extra peanut butter. This one is
twice as thick.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
I saw one with potato chips in it or something.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Don't need that nonsense. No, you guys stand a long
time ago. That's right, Just knock it off. What's the
best door to go to for Halloween decorations?
Speaker 6 (33:36):
I like spirit.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I think it's fun, you know, I mean for what
it is. You know, the prices are pretty low to
do something fun at your house.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
I can't do those with it where you step on
the buttons, and I think the kids it's too much
for them already. I bet I've already found that I've
gone too far. Least favorite holiday.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Probably Labor Day because it's so close to our season,
and once Labor Day hits them like here it comes.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I mean it's kind of nice though, that it's trunk
heated into October, really, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I mean for us it's like mid September now through
mid November as our season.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Is your goal to become the scariest or does that not?
Speaker 6 (34:14):
I think my goal is to become the most entertaining.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
You know, It's like you know, nowadays, we all live
our digital lives, where you know what your family's doing,
you know what your friends are doing, you look at
your phone. But creating unique events that people can share
together socially is really what we're all about. So and
not everybody likes to be terrified, right, So we like
to add the scary elements, but also add elements where
people can just hang out and have a good time
(34:38):
and celebrate Halloween.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Are you happy or sad that you're right before the election.
Speaker 6 (34:42):
I think people need a diversion, so I think, of
course they do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
I think people want to get out and not think
about things. And ultimately that's what we provide. You know,
if we give you thirty minutes where you're not thinking
about anything else while you're in a haunted house, I
think that's you.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Think people are think prepping for the civil war that's
a coming. Ah God, I hope not all right, Chris, Well,
I know you have to get back to work.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I know I'm gonna bring my new chainsaw get back
to work with you. Thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Thanks, ma'am Casha.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I want to thank Chris for being on the show.
That was delightful. Yeah, I'm not into being scared, speaking
of things I don't enjoy. Nazis. You see a swastika
and you know that is bad?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Right?
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Where are you guys at on the Rising Sun flag?
The wartime flag during World War Two from Japan?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I don't ever trust anything that I say, but I'm
told that some people, you know, view that similar to
a Nazi flag, and I was unaware of that. And
then the other day I was organizing my belt drawer.
Do you have a belt drawer? Doesn't matter? And I
(36:08):
see this belt that I own, and I'm like, is
that the Rising Sun flag on my belt? And I
never knew about this? Is that what that is?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Sure looks like it?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Sure looks like it, right? So I'm like, I can't
wear this belt? And whose fault is this? Carrie?
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Carrie my styl is.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
She buys all my stuff, and she's buying me basically
a Nazi belt. I had no idea. Are you guys
aware of this or not?
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I was not aware. You're not aware of it.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I'll tell you the real irony here the back of
this belt, I don't know if you can zoom in
on that says made in China. Wow, you telling me
that the Chinese people were making his belt. Go on,
these assholes really rubbing it in our face with all
their war atrocities. Anyway, I'm not gonna uh, I'm just
(37:07):
gonna get rid of this belt. I'm not gonna give
it to anyone. I'm just gonna throw it away now.
I don't know why I didn't flag it pun intended
the first time I saw it and put it in
my drawer. But man, you know that that's one of
the things where I h I stroke out and die
or something, and then people come through my stuff and
(37:29):
they say, well, look.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
At this, look at here.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
By the way, I could be completely wrong and that
flag's not offensive, but I just, you know, I like
to air on the side of what the fuck and
just blame carry anyway, all right, it's time for some plugs,
and we got some good plugs. Now you ready for this,
Carl boyswarpink dot com, Uh, tossshowstore dot com, get your
(37:59):
Toss Show merch and then get a free tickle if
you see me in the streets. Go to Eddie Goosling
dot com. Check out his tour dates. Go to Danieltosh
dot com to check out our tour dates. Come on,
come see us do stand up. It is really fun
to watch me live. You just you just learned so
(38:20):
much about me and my wife and how strong our
relationship is that she can put up with my shit. Okay,
now for our new segment.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Not so new.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
It's been like a couple of months, right the free
plug hit the free plug music Eddie. Oh look at this.
I didn't know the music was gonna change every week.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I got my knee, my glasses for this. Today's free
plug is for those of you and us. Go to Michigan.
October twenty six at seven pm is opening night for
the Shoreline Players production of The Adams Family, a New
Musical Comedy. Tickets are fifteen dollars for adults and ten
dollars for students, which seems like a steal. Ten dollars
(39:08):
to see The Adams Family, a New Musical Comedy. Well,
let's just say you live in a Tawa city or Saginaw.
You can't make it up to Oscota for opening night.
Don't worry, this production is gonna run through November. Third
Down at six thousand North Skiel Avenue in oscot To, Michigan,
right across from a Robert J. Parks Library. I don't
(39:30):
know what the parking situation is going to be like there.
I'm sure on the opening weekend it's gonna be a
cluster fuck. Head on over to Shoreline Players Dot Org. Yeah,
they'll straighten it out for you know. Maybe the parking
situation is great there. That's always my fear. Where do
we park? You think they have valet? I'm guessing they don't.
You like Valet? I always prefer not to valet. I
(39:53):
always like to get places early, you know, find some
street parking, and then just walk in and then I
take that five dollars savings, you know, put that in
a jar, and I save that jar, and then one
day I'm going to give that jar to whichever kid
I like the most and say this was for all
the times I didn't use Valet.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Now go get yourself something car.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
What do you think of that idea? You dying over there?
Your hair looks cute, a little top pony. All right, guys,
we gotta get out of here. See you next week.
If I was in a hunted house and all of
a sudden, like I go into one around a corner
and I'm walking in like three inches of muddy water.
Yea infuriate me.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I don't like some haunted houses incorporate water effects. I'm
not a big fan of those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I don't want to get wet. Yeah, I don't want
to feel moisture in a dark room.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Pasha Tosh shot, Hello and welcome to Tosh Show.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm your host, Dan Tosh.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Wh Eddie.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
How's it going, Tosh Man?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Man, it's long and plump and ready to pump.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Okay, yeah, huh did you.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Ever say that one? Back in high school?
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Never said that. That one must have slipped through the
vernacular in my school.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I used to say that. I used to say it
every day. My teacher, Big, how you doing. I'm long
and plump and ready to pump? And she was like,
that's my.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Boy to adults.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Oh man, good times at Astronaut High School. I mean
a good mood because I've almost fulfilled all the horrible
parent obligations for Halloween.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Just one more.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I just have one more to do, and that is
trick or treating, which I always thought was the only
thing we had to do.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Then I had a family, and my wife say, you know,
we got to go to Underwood Farms.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh, what is that.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's a place about an hour away, pumpkin patch. They
got some rides. If you call them rides a slide.
You feed a couple of animals, you give them way
too much money for gords. You sweat the temperature of
my house. Nice seventy degrees get there ninety two lovely.
Speaking of that, we were up in Tahoe the week
(01:51):
before and my wife was like, Oh, let's go on
over to this place called Apple Hill. They've got tons
of fall festival things going on. You get apple pies,
there's an orchard you walk around. First of all, I go, okay,
how far away is it?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Two hours and ten minutes what basically went to Sacramento.
Speaker 6 (02:13):
Fucking horrible.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
You don't live in Tahoe and vacation in Sacramento. That's absurd.
But we did it. We drove there and sure enough
it was boiling ninety eight degrees out. Oh, this is
this is superfall. I bought a turnover, had a turnover
into apple cinnamon donuts. That was all right, and then
(02:37):
we just like hopped around from bad Orchard to bad orchard.
There's a bunch of old obese No. I mean, I
shouldn't care about the size, but they there was just
a lot of old obese people. Then me and my
young family just is, yeah, we're here too, made no sense. Bees,
(02:57):
yellow jackets everywhere.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm like, this is awful. Oh, let's get back in the.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Car that two hour drive back to the beautiful place
we live. So you're four and a half hours in
the car that day, so go get a turnover.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I don't get it. What's the next thing I did?
Nights of the jack that's up in Calabasas. Yeah, that
I don't mind. It's at night, and you get a
there's a bunch of food trucks, and then you walk
a mile and a half loop in this park and
they've set up all kinds of Halloween lights. Kids seem
to enjoy it. I don't mind it because I get
(03:37):
to eat. As long as i'm eating, I'm happy.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That's the key.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You You like Halloween, don't you, Hattie.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I do like Halloween.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, because you sold your sould of the devil.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I sold my soul of the devil.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Do you dress up?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I don't dress up. I do like a you know,
decorate the house.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You decorate the house.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
But you hand candy out, hand out candy?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Are you proud of the candy you give? Or do
you not care?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No?
Speaker 5 (03:59):
I do five nice bags at Costco, good sized candy bars.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
We have a ton of people come through.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
My manager, Christy Smith, just loves to brag that I
give out whole bars. Last year I gave out three
hundred and seventy four. Who cares. I turned the lights
off at our house and we go to another neighborhood
where it's more congested, and you knock it out. You
do one street, you hit three hundred homes. I've never
(04:27):
once been home to hand out candy.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
You don't understand this side of this lightop.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I don't get it. No, I don't get it, and
I don't care anyway. My son's good for about forty
five minutes, maybe an hour of actual trick or treating.
And we started at five o'clock and by six we're done.
Now he likes to be scared, but you know, five
year old scared Where I hide in the house and
(04:58):
he comes on around a corner scream and he almost
falls over. I don't think he's ready for like a
severed head to be thrown at him.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Like today's guest.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
This guy, This guy is cashed in on America's love
affair of being terrified.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Enjoy catcha.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
My guest today has made his living lurking in the shadows,
speaking in whispers, and blurring the line between nightmares and
reality with several insanely successful haunted houses nationwide. May God
have mercy on his soul, please welcome the architect of fear, Chris. Chris,
thank you for being here.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Yeah, thanks for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Where are you from?
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Originally originally from upstate New York? Rochester?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Rochester?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
You know Rochester gets a bad rap sometimes.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
I think it does. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
You give me a choice of where to live, Rochester
or Buffalo. I'm taking Rochester every time.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
I agree, hands down.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I think lately it's gotten some press for great places
to live or something like that.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It's nice to hear. Yeah, I just want the people
of Buffalo to know that their place is horrible.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
All right.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So now you live you live in Denver.
Speaker 6 (06:09):
I live in Denver.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Yeah, my wife thinks I live here a part time,
but I live in Denver.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You do a lot of work in laws.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Yeah, we have four events here in La now, so
I'm out here a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Talk to me about Sean Payton. Were you happy with
that decision?
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Yes? I was happy with that, and then you knew.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
That the writing was on the wall for Old Russ.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
It sure looked like that right away.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Do you blame John Elway?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
I think John Elway just came out and blamed himself.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Actually, John Elway, maybe he's just trying to cement his
own legacy by never letting someone better than him become
a quarterback in Denver.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
That would be a conspiracy, but I could get behind him.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Does he still have all those dealerships everywhere he does?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah? Yep, so there's still one down in South Bay.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Eddy, I think I bought a Toyota from a while back.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
You bought a Toyota from John Elwack.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Good on you.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
How many haunted houses are we looking at now?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (06:57):
We have eighteen and twelve different markets.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Are you the biggest company that does this? As far
as I'm aware, we are the largest Halloween live event
company in the world.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you had a hunted house called thirteenth floor. Yeah,
it started in Denver. Originally what floor was it on?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
On ground level? But so the backstory is the thirteenth
floor is hidden underground so that they can they can
hide it because it's absence in so many buildings.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Did you ever hear Mitch Hedberg's joke about the thirteenth floor?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
No, huh, he had a joke.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
But if you if you kill yourself on the fourteenth floor,
you're going to die sooner.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
You're losing me on this one.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Because they don't they don't have that. It's actually the
third The fourteenth floor is always the thing, gotcha? Yeah,
you know what, I probably didn't do the joke.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Did I do the joke? Right?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I gotta look it up.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
It said something like it doesn't matter who cares. Now,
I'll be honest with you, my favorite holiday is Christmas
and my second favorite holiday is Christmas Eve. To me,
the best thing about Halloween is getting ready for Christmas.
Now it's acceptable to start selling.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Well, now it's it's Christmas is in the stories before
Halloween even kicks off.
Speaker 6 (07:59):
It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Are you one of these people that Halloween was always
your favorite holiday or.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
No, probably, Yeah, I mean Christmas is pretty close, but
Halloween I think was you know, it was it was
fun being involved in haunted houses. It's a very unique
way to celebrate the season. And you know, I like
the Fall a lot, so it just kind of tied together.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
I do like the fall. You say fall over autumn?
Speaker 6 (08:18):
Yeah I do.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I do too.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Now is it just October or your year round?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Now it's year round.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
We're already working on next season right now when this
season just just kicked off?
Speaker 6 (08:28):
Really?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
So favorite a horror movie? Do you have any that
you liked?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
You know, I grew up with the classic Slashers. I
grew up in the eighties, so you know, Freddie, Jason Michael,
those are kind of my go tos.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, Nightmare on Elmstred As a kid, that scared me?
Speaker 6 (08:42):
Yeah I did.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Really, you play to the one thing that that's the
worst for a kid, like you can't fall asleep. If
you fall asleep, you're gonna die. Did you like to
be scared as a child?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Not really actually, And wasn't really a big horror fan.
But when I was a teenager, I was fifteen years
old and a friend of mine called me up and said, hey,
do you want to go scare some people tonight? And
I said, well, are we going to get in trouble
or arrested or what's Just like? His family owned a
local haunted house and that's where I got started. Went
out there, started scaring people, got bit by the haunted
house bug, and have been involved in one way or
another for my entire life. We started our first professional
(09:15):
haunted house in two thousand and two. Okay, but from
ninety eight until two thousand and ten, I had a
career in banking.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And how how did your wife handle you saying listen,
I really want to knock it off with the banking
and just go full time haunted here.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I went to her in two thousand and six and
I said, hey, I think I can scale this haunted
house business.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
She said, let me get this straight.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You have a great job, you have an awesome work
life balance, they pay you well, you like what you do.
She's like, I'm not saying no, but I think you
should really think about this. But then in two thousand
and eight, when the financial crisis hit, yep, my job
became super on fun overnight. We were doing land development
and construction lending. Which overnight was kind of a mess.
So she said, hey, it's time for you to go
(09:58):
do what you want to do and some fun.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, they say happy husband, and they don't say
anything because they don't care if the husbands are happy.
There's no saying for happy husband. Just go to work.
Were you terrified going into this like diving in.
Speaker 6 (10:13):
A little bit, you know? And it's funny.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I hadn't thought about that in a while, but in
two thousand and eight, I remember when I was like,
all right, this is this is what we're going to do.
And I was like, man, I hope this works out.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Is it more passion or or is it profit? At
this point, like you know, cash cow.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It's equal.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I know that sounds like a PC response, but like
you got to have both sides of it. You got
to have passion for the product, but you also have
to have, you know, a business acumen. You got to
market it, you got to finance it, you got to
you know, do all those other things. And I think
the successful attractions blend both of those together.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They say fear is an aphrodisiac. Is this whole enterprise
rooted around kink? No? No, not at all. What's the
best state for enthusiasm for the all the Hunted House.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
Honestly, uh, California.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
LA has an incredible fandom over haunted events like nothing
I receive in any other market because they're godless.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
I don't know, I think.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
No, I mean, that's that's impressive. I mean, I mean
there's a sheer numbers thing though there is, Yeah, there's that,
but but I think it's it's it's a little more
than that out here.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I think maybe, you know, having the theme parks out
here kind of facilitated that, and now I think they're
seeking out alternative events to the theme parks as well.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
And how's that hay ride doing. Hay Ride's awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Hay Ride's like great to be in LA, but get
transported to like you know, it feels like the East
Coast vibe or a Midwest vibe during Halloween.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Can you rent out your own hay ride a private ride?
Speaker 6 (11:43):
You can rent a private hay ride trailer.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Uh huh yep, and just go solo.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
You can go solo if you want. Most most people.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sit there where about you.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know, I think you'd trip out the actors if
you did that. It was just you by yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Can you eat while you're on the hay ride?
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Not on the hay ride?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It's a shame.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Yeah, I like that, a burger on the hay right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Well, I mean I don't know. I just I always
like to be eating. Now, what's pulling these hay rides?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Tractors? Like actual farm tractors?
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Do you own them?
Speaker 6 (12:14):
We do?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah? How many do you owt We own eleven of them?
I believe what brand are we looking at?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Are they Deer? Are they John Deeers?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
They're not, They're red, They're okay, I don't know what
the brand.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I'm in the market for one that doesn't run anymore.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
What are you gonna do with it?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
What in my yard?
Speaker 6 (12:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Like as a pretty Yeah, your neighbors love it. What
do I care about that? I just want to I
just want an old tractor.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
But I think old John Deer's are pretty pretty bad ass.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
The problem is they don't they don't bring people. They
keep restoring them. They're like nineteen forties and they're still running.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
There's a lot of people that collect them.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Now, Yeah, I don't want to spend a lot. I
just want an old junkie tractor to put in the yard.
Seems like something fun to climb on and get, you know,
get a big old rust cut. What about the boat?
What's the ship thing?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Dark harbor? Yeah, yeah, I mean amazing old haunted ship.
We do Haunted maze is on the ship. There's three
on the ship and then there's two in the harbor
that are adjacent. What's the ship do the rest of
the year.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
It's a hotel. They also have restaurants.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, you've been on that ship, Eddie, I have
been on it.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
You have, Yeah, I've been at this event.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Of course you have.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Oh man, what's the scariest thing?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You know?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Every year? Are new things being invented? Or is it
still just like jump out and startle people.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
When people say they're getting scared in a haunted house,
it's usually they're being startled, so a loud noise allowed,
ef fact, you know, something like that.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Lighting changes.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's really hard to scare people, you know, on the
emotional aspect of scaring people, But it's easy to startle people,
and that's mostly what people are looking for.
Speaker 6 (13:47):
I think when they go to haunted house, why do
you think people like being scared?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I think when people are scared, it's the same type
of chemical release in your body, like when you're happier,
you're excited. I think they go to see their friends
be scared. I think they go in a group of
people with someone they know is going to be scared
so that they can watch and see what that person's
reaction is. Yeah, are you into the gore and those
type of stuff or not so much?
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Really?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, I like the psychological stuff better. I think it's
a little scarier as far as films go.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Okay, forget films, but I mean, are your guys like
walking on severed arms and all that stuff? And yeah,
what about torturing each other? Are they doing that stuff?
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Yeah, not torturing each other.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But you know, everybody likes something different in a haunted house,
and there's certain fans that they want to see the gore.
They want to see things that you know, look real,
that aren't real. So yeah, we have a lot of
that in the haunted houses.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
What it's the protocol. Somebody gets too scared.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Usually the actors or sometimes we have event staff in
the attractions, and they can identify that and ask them
if they're okay and escort them out through an emergency.
I don't want to be they scored it out by
like some monsters. Well, and that's why that's why we
have to have event staff there as well, because the
last thing you want to do when you're terrified is
have a monster come up to find out if you're.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Okay you or have someone have a hard attack and
just die.
Speaker 6 (14:57):
No, nobody died.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Nobody's stroked out out in the middle of one of
these things.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
We have had people pass out and have it be
a little too much for them.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Sure, I've had that at a show before. I thought
my jokes were just doing real well, then turned out
it was really bad. You ever get scared walking through
your own haunted houses?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I don't get scared in haunted houses. For me, it's
the dark, right, It's like the fear of the unknown
to me is way scarier than what you might see
in hanted house. You're saying in the just general and darkness,
you don't like it. Yeah, I don't like darkness. Not
a big fan. Scared of the dark. I guess, do
you like honored houses? Do you go? No? No?
Speaker 6 (15:32):
No?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
No.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
The thing is, if I went, I would love it. Yeah,
but I'm also okay with Well I didn't go, and
that was really lovely not going out. Yeah, all right,
That's where I'm at on most things. Yeah, you really
have to persuade. I mean, my whole day gets ruined
when I find out my wife has set up an activity.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I'm like, oh no.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Honestly, the real nightmare of all these places is the parking.
True or false?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Uh, pretty true on the venue, but definitely pretty true
because you know, everybody wants to go on the weekend.
It's the only time that all their friends are available.
So you know, it's not not nasty to park if
you come on a Thursday or a Sunday, but if
you're going to go on a Friday and Saturday, it's
at a premium for you. Always have to do it
at night too. That's a problem for me with the
Halloween stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, I'm not ah, I wish we could do there
was like a matinee showing, just not as scary though.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
That's the problem now. It takes the sun going down
for people to get a little in the in the
spooky mood.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I guess the bathroom situation that's the nightmare at all
these places.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, it's a lot of work to keep those clean
and ready for use.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh, because you have to deal with the worst group
of people on the planet. Has to be like twelve
to sixteen year old just dealing with them constantly. Yeah,
they're just monsters.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Yeah, I'm not sure I should comment on that.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
No, you can't, but I mean I see it. I
go to a local fair every now and then I'm
just like, look at and then they dress like whores.
You're just like this, this is awful. How does a
fire marshall feel about adding tons of walls and trip
hazards to a dark room?
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Yeah, I mean they're they feel great about it. It's
it's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
No, do they actually like, go, guys, you can't do this.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Most of our fire marshals we have a great relationship with.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We haven't really ran into anybody that is you know,
anti haunted house or Halloween. They just want to make
sure it's safe, and you know, we want to make
sure the same thing. So you know, having an open
dialogue with them is always really helpful as well.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
Can't you do.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I'm just trying to think of things that I would
hate if I was in a haunted house and all
of a sudden, like I go into one around a corner,
and I'm walking in like three inches of muddy water.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, I would infuriate me. Yeah, I don't think i'd
want to do that either.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Are you allowed to do that?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Though?
Speaker 6 (17:46):
I think we would be allowed to do muddy water,
But I don't. I don't think that you.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Want to really upset people. Yeah, they go out and
their sneakers.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I don't like some haunted houses incorporate water effects. I'm
not a big fan of those. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I don't want to get wet. Yeah, I don't want feel
moisture in a dark room. What about smell? You mess
with smells? We do mess with smells. Oh yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And there's there's a company out there that sells disgusting
smelling sense you can put in the Honted house. The
problem with those is, as much as you might want
to use them for the guests coming through so they
catch a quick smell of that, I just feel terrible
for the actors that are stuck in there with that
smell the whole night.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I mean, there has to be a pecking order with
your actors, and I feel like, you know what, you
you mess up a couple of times you're on the
stink gun.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
Or you get to graduate from smell to non smell.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Maybe that's what you could do.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
You could have like like some weird dead woman with
a bottle of perfume, Like she's at like a Macy's
at the holidays, spraying people and she just comes up
to you and sprays you, and then you're just covered
in stink.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
Yeah, and that that stuff does not go away, So.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
That's not good. What's the age range? What's the lowest
age that can not you know, it's it's determinant on
the kid. I've seen kids as young as five and
have a great time.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
There's no rule. There's no rule.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
We tell them when they show up that we don't
recommend it for kids under twelve, and we tell them
that it's the ticket booth. Well okay, but.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
You know it's it's kind of parents discretion.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I think some of them make good choices because they
know the kids, and some of them make bad choices
because their kids shouldn't be there.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But they are responsible drug dealer.
Speaker 6 (19:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I think that the core age though, is you're pre
teen to twenty something, but that's starting to skew older.
I think haunted houses the production value has gotten a
lot higher and now it's more about a whole night
of entertainment. So older people are starting to stick with
haunted houses a lot longer than I think they used to.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
What a ticket range is prices range for.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
You know, on average, right now, they're about you know,
thirty five dollars for kind of your base ticket to
get you in the door. And that really hasn't changed
drastically when you look at inflation over the years over
leave in the last ten years, haunted houses are still
pretty pretty good value as it comes to live entertainment.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And you handled COVID without any major.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
COVID was rough.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
But the nature of what we do in haunted entertainment
is we social distance by nature, like you don't want
to be more than six feet from the group in
front of you. So there was a lot of educating
to the people in charge to say, hey, we can
open this safely and we can keep people apart from
each other and keep them in their family groups. Chi
ching is what I heard.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
Yeah, or or just trying to lose less money that year.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I mean, yeah, but at least you weren't in the
concert business. Yeah, exactly. Do you guys have a thing
where you're like at a big scare moment that there's
a photo taken of them that they can buy later.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So we don't have a photo moment, but we are
currently experience experimenting with a video moment.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
So we have an RFID tag.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
They go through the haunted house and there's five different
scare points, and it records like a couple seconds before
they go into the room until a couple seconds after.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I don't want you to leaving money on the table.
Speaker 6 (20:53):
Yeah, I try not to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got a gift shop there too.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We have big gift shops now. Yeah, people love buying
spooky things for Halloween.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
You sell a faulty pregnancy test in your gift shop, Oh.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
No, that might be a big seller, though it's a
good gag.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Put those in there really scare some people. What does
it cost to run one of your attractions?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
You know, it depends on the venue. On the low end,
multiple of hundreds of thousand dollars. On the larger end,
in the millions of dollars to run the different events.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
You look at your dailies, go, oh man, this is
what we're spending so much money on every year.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Payroll yeah, actors staff. I mean that's the number one expense,
hands down, and the amount of actors that you have
once you audition these idiots. I don't know. I don't
personally audition anybody anymore, but we do have auditions, and
usually for the more specialized roles, more acting intensive roles.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Well, people are just screaming and running up to me.
Allowed to touch you?
Speaker 6 (21:53):
No, we don't touch No. It's it's kind of an
unspoken rule.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
A lot of people say, oh, I was touched in
on how it's usually you know, the actor, they're in
a dark space, they'll bump into you and you know,
un touched in the house too.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
But you know that's for my therapist to figure out
what's the oldest, uh person that you guys hire.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I don't know officially the oldest, but all of our attractions,
I always see an old actor.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
That makes you question.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
It's it's amazing how many different people from different professions
just want to do it for fun.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
You use children actors, ever, we do not not allowed to.
We just find kids just terrifying, so we put it
you put a kid in there.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
We actually have some actors that are child sized. Uh huh.
I like what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Yeah, and when they're.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Made up, you you would swear they're a kid, but
they're you know, legal adults. Uh huh, all right, loopholes.
I love it. What kind of background checks are you
doing on all these everyone? Everyone gets a background check
before they become an employee everyone.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I mean, I don't I don't want to talk about
worst case scenarios, but are you guys prepared for all
that stuff?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah? No, we we stay very diligent, well real crazy,
They very diligent in keeping the actual crazies out of
the Haunted House.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Those makeup artists. The amount of time it takes. Is
there a sped up version that you guys are doing
with all these actors.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah. A lot of the makeup artists use in an
airbrush makeup so they can they can move really fast,
so they can draw in different details.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
But they're putting like gels and flesh.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Not everyone, you know, So different levels of actor depending
upon how visible they're going to be in the Haunted House.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
So the ones that are going.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
To be more visible might have like a prosthetic treatment
like you're talking about, but a lot of them are
airbrush and with shadows.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
And things. They can do some really cool makeups with airbrush.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You ever put a mask on and scare people? I did.
I mean that's how I started, But I mean now
now it's undercover boss style. It's been about eight years
and I think the last time I did it, I
was absolutely exhausted after about twenty minutes.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
So I gave that up.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Hung up the mask. That's a misconception with people. They
all think they want to work in a haunted house.
But it's hard work. You know, you're in a mask
or hot costume, You're in a dark, cramped space, and
it's hard jumping out doing the same thing repetitively, you know,
for over like a five hour night.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
What do you think about these gen zs? How's their
work ethic?
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Different? Questionable? Maybe I'm trying to trying to stay correct here.
I got a lot of gen Z actors. Look you
know the I mean you're really in it.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, you really can see every generation go oh this
is awful.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Yeah. I think the one upcoming is is pretty good.
I think the next one up is going to be good.
I can't get my kid to do anything.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
There's good luck with a boss telling them to do
something I loved working.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
As a kid. Yeah, oh yeah, just.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Because that was the only way I was ever going
to get money or get to do anything.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, Like my parents just didn't care. Yeah, we're not
giving you anything. Yeah, No, that's changed a lot. I
have two kids at home that I'm like wondering when
they're gonna get kicked out of the nest.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Or would you kick him out? Would your wife let
you kick him out? Probably not? Yeah, that's all right.
There's worse things to have in your house.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Your kids are what my kids are, eighteen and twenty.
My son actually turns twenty one on Thursday this week.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
You're kind of an empty nester. Is that even a
thing anymore? Because it seems like kids just stay with
us forever.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, they have not left the nest. Ye failure to
launch for sure?
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Did your kids Did they like Halloween as a kid?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
They did not like it as young kids up until
the time they were about twelve. In fact, when my
son was really young, he used to be excited about
the different catalogs and things that would come in the mail.
He'd say, I want to look at the spooky stuff.
But when he was five, my stepfather decided to scare
him when he was over at his house, and from
the time he was five until he was about twelve,
he wanted nothing to do with it. He starred him.
(25:44):
I think he just figured out what fear was. Now,
he figured out. He wasn't jazzed about that, but a
smart kid.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, what do you do personally at your own home
on Halloween?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
When my kids were young, my wife would get crap
from the neighbors because she said, you're they're like your husband,
mister Halloween, and your house is the most boring house
on the block.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
You tell your neighbors if they shell out fifty bucks,
you'll up the game.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Because I was working, you know, I was out, you know,
and the kids weren't old enough to be celebrating. But
once my kids were old enough, I did start decorating
the yard and I would take things from the haunted house,
fog machines, speakers, I did projections in our windows, different props,
and you would think I created the most incredible haunted house.
At all time, my neighbors are out there with their
phones out, and I want to say to them, I'm like,
(26:29):
right down the street, there's a place. We invested millions
of dollars in that people are still going through and
coming out the other side going it was, okay.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Are your kids going to take over your empire?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
You know, I did not push either one of them
to get involved in any way, but they both are
involved now. They both work at our location in Denver.
My daughter's an actress and she also does some makeup there,
and then my son is more on the tech side,
so kind of the behind the scenes. But I felt
like I didn't want to push them to be involved.
I wanted it to be their own choice to be involved.
But yeah, they're both involved in I see them growing
(26:59):
with the company and probably taking on more responsibility.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
How do I forget this first question? Do you believe
in ghosts?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You know, I want to believe in ghosts, and I
feel like I should believe in ghosts, But no, I
don't believe in.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Ghosts because you've seen behind the curtain too much exactly. Ah,
that's a shame. I really wanted you to believe in ghosts.
The people that care about Halloween too much, do they
freak out a little bit?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
I think anybody that cares about anything too much is
a little scary.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
But you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
It's like those Disney adults. You have to go to
Disney constantly. What about international? Have you put one overseas yet?
We're not open overseas yet. I bet you could do
some weird stuff in some of these Asian countries. Oh man,
they're probably into some freaky scary stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:44):
I might not be tuned into the Asian horror scene
quite yet.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Oh, but I bet I'm talking about money on the table.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
I mean, Halloween is growing fast in other parts of
the world.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You know, it was always traditionally more of an American thing,
but now.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I don't even know that. I don't even know that
that's true. It was just it's basically an American holiday.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
And now it's grown fast in Europe, Asia, the Middle East.
People used to ask me, where are you going to
expand to? I said, take Denver, draw out a two
and a half hour flight radius.
Speaker 6 (28:12):
It's a pretty safe bet.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
You got one and asspen yet No, no, I don't
think you'd work out up there.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
What other cities, Well, you got Colorado Springs. M those
people are talk about scary. The people in Colorado Springs.
There's a bunch of there's a bunch of loonies over there.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Aren't there great people in Colorado Springs? They love driving
to Denver for the haunted house? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
What about those the things where I hear of people
being completely actually paid to be tortured. Basically, I don't
know exactly what I'm talking about, but.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Not haunted houses is my big statement on those, right.
It's like, you know, to your point, it's like a
simulated abduction or a simulated torture.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
Not what we do.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
And I and you know, it gets a lot of
press around Halloween, but I don't think anybody that really
just wants to celebrate Halloween is into that stuff, you know.
Speaker 6 (28:57):
I think that's more of a unique person a fun
date night.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Come on, honey, if we can make it till sun up,
we get one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Everybody's on my show gets a gift, and it's just
stuff that I have around my house. So I was like, oh,
I don't know what to give you, But then I
thought of something.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I've never used it one time in my life. Got
you my chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Oh my god, this is awesome. I don't think I've
ever had my own chainsaw. Yeah, I figured. I was like, well,
I don't need this. Look, I even I even.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Have all this stuff because I'm like, they're like, oh,
you're gonna need barn oil cleaner and you're gonna need
all whatever.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
This is, Oh smoke.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
What was the plan for it when you got it?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I'm like, because I was a man, like I have
a house.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, And they're like, well you need a chain saw.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Well this is this is part of the man card.
Now I have one. I haven't had one before, so
this is good.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And then you're supposed to sharpen a shape.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
All of it just says like, sharpen this thing.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
You're you don't think like I have a file that
goes in betwe a single?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No, I listen.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
It's never been used as a sixteen inch chains as
a craftsman.
Speaker 6 (30:06):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
That two year warrant. He's gotta be void. Yeah, that
thing has been sitting in my garage.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
The box is discolored on the top. Yeah, it's been here.
It's been here a while.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
It's been there many many years. Never never thought to
use it.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
All right, get that off my des please.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
This is my mask that I've done a bit on
my old I had an old TV show and I
did a bit and it was, oh, yeah, I love
this baby.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
I know the artist that made that you do big
ass baby. Yeah, his name's Landing. Yeah, land Landed did
good work. Because this is creepy as hell. I know.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, it's the right it's the right amount of cree.
I'm not giving it to you, but I just I
wanted to bring it. This is the worst thing in
the world.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
That is the worst thing in the world.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
My wife bought that and goes, oh, I go, what
are you talking about? That is pure shit.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
You cannot carve a pump pumpkin with this.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Do you carve pum pumpkins?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
I do. I finally didn't get that off. I finally
stopped carving real pumpkins. And now we have these forever pumpkins.
So if you carve your design into at least she
can keep it year after year. Now that the kids
are oh, you don't do my mind. Forever pumpkin. It's
it's a foam pumpkin and you cut it. Yeah, and
you can cut a design into it just like a regular.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Pumpkins, like hard to cut, like a real pumpkins, where
you will slice yourself.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I like y.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
It is the nice thing about it is once they're carved,
you can keep them every year and just kind of
keep adding. You don't have to run out and get
a live pumpkin.
Speaker 6 (31:33):
Every year.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
We get pumpkins, lots of them. I never knew that.
I always thought you bought one pumpkin. My wife we
go to a pumpkin pet and she's getting gords and
pumpkins and she gets like ten to put next to
each other, by.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
The different colors, all the different.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
And then we don't carve a single one.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
No, no, how come?
Speaker 2 (31:52):
I don't have the answer to that.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
It's just like they just look nicer.
Speaker 6 (31:55):
Maybe when your kids are a little older, they're gonna
want maybe.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
They'll want to carve one. I don't, I hope, because
I don't want to do it. No, you guys decorate
your house for Halloween?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yeah you do? Yep?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
What do you put up?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Eddie?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
I do that? You know the glass garage?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Do? I do?
Speaker 5 (32:09):
Projection from the inside nice, so like it's a like
a skeleton dances around.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Can you could you just play something?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah? You could just play a movie.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, why don't you put Why don't you just put
like this the Saw anthology.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Uh, you know a.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Lot that you can't play play those type of movies, right,
thanks the neighborhood to shut that down.
Speaker 6 (32:31):
I think the neighborhood be upset about that one.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
My neighborhood, they used to just do one section of
the street and people would go crazy and do all
kinds of things. And then just you know, recently a
few neighbors have moved and they dropped the ball. It's
no longer exciting.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Yeah. I remember when I was a kid, it was
like Halloween and trick or treating was huge, especially back East.
People would stop by your house and you'd welcome them in.
But now it's like people come and ring your doorbell.
You don't want anything to do with them. So I
never went into a house though that you went into
house as a kid, that's dand no, no, just just just
ringing the doorbell, okay, all right. Anybody says come on in,
it's like, ah, don't go to that house.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
What's your favorite candy given out of the Halloween Reese's
peanut butter cups.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Butter cups, not Reese's pieces, those are good, but peanut
butter cups.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, peanut butter cup.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
I'm not liking that they've tried to diversify so much,
Like this one has extra peanut butter. This one is
twice as thick.
Speaker 6 (33:26):
I saw one with potato chips in it or something.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Don't need that nonsense. No, you guys stand a long
time ago. That's right, Just knock it off. What's the
best door to go to for Halloween decorations?
Speaker 6 (33:36):
I like spirit.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I think it's fun, you know, I mean for what
it is. You know, the prices are pretty low to
do something fun at your house.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
I can't do those with it where you step on
the buttons, and I think the kids it's too much
for them already. I bet I've already found that I've
gone too far. Least favorite holiday.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Probably Labor Day because it's so close to our season,
and once Labor Day hits them like here it comes.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I mean it's kind of nice though, that it's trunk
heated into October, really, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (34:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I mean for us it's like mid September now through
mid November as our season.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Is your goal to become the scariest or does that not?
Speaker 6 (34:14):
I think my goal is to become the most entertaining.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
You know, It's like you know, nowadays, we all live
our digital lives, where you know what your family's doing,
you know what your friends are doing, you look at
your phone. But creating unique events that people can share
together socially is really what we're all about. So and
not everybody likes to be terrified, right, So we like
to add the scary elements, but also add elements where
people can just hang out and have a good time
(34:38):
and celebrate Halloween.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Are you happy or sad that you're right before the election.
Speaker 6 (34:42):
I think people need a diversion, so I think, of
course they do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
I think people want to get out and not think
about things. And ultimately that's what we provide. You know,
if we give you thirty minutes where you're not thinking
about anything else while you're in a haunted house, I
think that's you.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Think people are think prepping for the civil war that's
a coming. Ah God, I hope not all right, Chris, Well,
I know you have to get back to work.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I know I'm gonna bring my new chainsaw get back
to work with you. Thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Thanks, ma'am Casha.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
I want to thank Chris for being on the show.
That was delightful. Yeah, I'm not into being scared, speaking
of things I don't enjoy. Nazis. You see a swastika
and you know that is bad?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Right?
Speaker 4 (35:34):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Where are you guys at on the Rising Sun flag?
The wartime flag during World War Two from Japan?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I don't ever trust anything that I say, but I'm
told that some people, you know, view that similar to
a Nazi flag, and I was unaware of that. And
then the other day I was organizing my belt drawer.
Do you have a belt drawer? Doesn't matter? And I
(36:08):
see this belt that I own, and I'm like, is
that the Rising Sun flag on my belt? And I
never knew about this? Is that what that is?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Sure looks like it?
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Sure looks like it, right? So I'm like, I can't
wear this belt? And whose fault is this? Carrie?
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Carrie my styl is.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
She buys all my stuff, and she's buying me basically
a Nazi belt. I had no idea. Are you guys
aware of this or not?
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I was not aware. You're not aware of it.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I'll tell you the real irony here the back of
this belt, I don't know if you can zoom in
on that says made in China. Wow, you telling me
that the Chinese people were making his belt. Go on,
these assholes really rubbing it in our face with all
their war atrocities. Anyway, I'm not gonna uh, I'm just
(37:07):
gonna get rid of this belt. I'm not gonna give
it to anyone. I'm just gonna throw it away now.
I don't know why I didn't flag it pun intended
the first time I saw it and put it in
my drawer. But man, you know that that's one of
the things where I h I stroke out and die
or something, and then people come through my stuff and
(37:29):
they say, well, look.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
At this, look at here.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
By the way, I could be completely wrong and that
flag's not offensive, but I just, you know, I like
to air on the side of what the fuck and
just blame carry anyway, all right, it's time for some plugs,
and we got some good plugs. Now you ready for this,
Carl boyswarpink dot com, Uh, tossshowstore dot com, get your
(37:59):
Toss Show merch and then get a free tickle if
you see me in the streets. Go to Eddie Goosling
dot com. Check out his tour dates. Go to Danieltosh
dot com to check out our tour dates. Come on,
come see us do stand up. It is really fun
to watch me live. You just you just learned so
(38:20):
much about me and my wife and how strong our
relationship is that she can put up with my shit. Okay,
now for our new segment.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Not so new.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
It's been like a couple of months, right the free
plug hit the free plug music Eddie. Oh look at this.
I didn't know the music was gonna change every week.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I got my knee, my glasses for this. Today's free
plug is for those of you and us. Go to Michigan.
October twenty six at seven pm is opening night for
the Shoreline Players production of The Adams Family, a New
Musical Comedy. Tickets are fifteen dollars for adults and ten
dollars for students, which seems like a steal. Ten dollars
(39:08):
to see The Adams Family, a New Musical Comedy. Well,
let's just say you live in a Tawa city or Saginaw.
You can't make it up to Oscota for opening night.
Don't worry, this production is gonna run through November. Third
Down at six thousand North Skiel Avenue in oscot To, Michigan,
right across from a Robert J. Parks Library. I don't
(39:30):
know what the parking situation is going to be like there.
I'm sure on the opening weekend it's gonna be a
cluster fuck. Head on over to Shoreline Players Dot Org. Yeah,
they'll straighten it out for you know. Maybe the parking
situation is great there. That's always my fear. Where do
we park? You think they have valet? I'm guessing they don't.
You like Valet? I always prefer not to valet. I
(39:53):
always like to get places early, you know, find some
street parking, and then just walk in and then I
take that five dollars savings, you know, put that in
a jar, and I save that jar, and then one
day I'm going to give that jar to whichever kid
I like the most and say this was for all
the times I didn't use Valet.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Now go get yourself something car.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
What do you think of that idea? You dying over there?
Your hair looks cute, a little top pony. All right, guys,
we gotta get out of here. See you next week.
Host
Daniel Tosh
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